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§ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. | 

i. Chap. .L^..Sti.'^.^ p| 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

J 

PREDICTION MADE CONCERNING HIM IN 1756. 



Massachusetts/Historical Society. Junk, 181>2. 

Dr. Samuel A. Gbeen made the followino- leniarks on a 
small volume which he presented to the library of the Society. 
He said that it had on.ce belonged to our late associate, Dr. 
Thomas H. Webb, as it bears his autograph signature on the 
titlepage. It was published originall}' as a pamphlet, but has 
since been bound. The little book is entitled : '' RELIGION | 
AND I PATRIOTISM | The Constituents of a Good | SOL- 
DIER. I A I SERMON I Preached to | Captain Overton's 
Independant | Company of Volunteers, raised in | Hanover 
County, Virginia^ Au- \ gust 17, 1755. | Bg Samuel Davies, 
A. M. Minister of \ the Crospel there.'' \ \ 

PHILADELPHIA, Printed : LONDON ; Re-printed for 
J. BucKLAND, in Pater-noster Roiv, J. Ward at the Kitu/s- 
Arms in CornhilU and T. Field in Cheapside. 1756. 8vo. 
pp. 38. 

The writer in his day was a noted minister of Virginia ; but 
• the interest in the sermon lies wholly in the fact that it con- 
tains a remarkable prediction concerning General Washington, 
made twenty years before the Revolution. In preaching to 
the military company, Mr. Davies says : — 



'"7^x.7 



.2. 

" Our Continent is like to become the Seat of War ; and we, for the 
future (till the sundry European Nations that have phmted Colonies in 
it, have fixed their Boundaries by the Sword) have no other Way left 
to defend our Rights and Privileges. And has God been pleased to 
diffuse some Sparks of this Martial Fire through our Country ? I hope 
he has : And though it has been almost extinguished by so long a 
Peace, and a Delude of Luxury and Pleasure, now I hope it begins to 
kindle : And may I not produce you my Brethren, who are engaged in 
this Expedition, as Instances of it? " (Pages 11. 12.) 

In a foot-note to this paragraph he adds : — 

"As a remarkable Instance of this, I may point out to the Public 
that heroic Youth Col. Washington, whom I cannot but hope Provi- 
dence has hitherto preserved in so signal a Manner, for some important 
Service to his Country." (Page 12.) 

The sermon was joreached onl}^ a few weeks after the en- 
sragement which resulted in Braddock's Defeat, where Wash- 
ington behaved with signal gallantry ; and the allusion fas k»a 
in the note is to that action, as well as to the battle of the 
Great Meadows in the summer of the preceding year. 



